>> Regular people can’t tell the diff between expensive and cheap wine, concludes Steven D. Levitt at Freakonomics after a failed attempt to pay less as a non wino member of a highbrow dining club of sorts. Ignorance is bliss — and drunken savings.
>> PETA’s cheap attention-getting schemes often treat women like meat. The latest: “three young women wearing nothing but lacy knickers and nipple tape in a cage with the sign ‘Chicks Agree: Boycott KFC.’” (via Grist)
A feminist commentator, Ann Friedman, summarises the message behind [PETA's] ads: “It’s OK to buck the stereotype of real men eat red meat, because here are some naked ladies to reassure you that you’re still a superhetero manly man!”
>> An article in Utne about vitamins, published not too long after I asked about them. Julie Hanus writes a well-balanced diet doesn’t necessary get you all the vitamins and minerals you may need — because conventional factory farmed fruits and veggies just aren’t that nutritious. What if I’m eating organic farmers’ market veggies though?
Photo by LiveU4
There are a couple of interesting articles, a little dated now, but still worth reading, on PETA and feminism from the Feminists for Animal Rights website:
http://www.farinc.org/newsletter/v8_n3-4_94/petaporn1.html
http://www.farinc.org/newsletter/v8_n3-4_94/petaporn2.html
Honestly, I don’t know where PETA’s support is still coming from. Most vegans and vegetarians I know are also fervently pro-feminist and find these kind of exploitative campaigns deeply offensive and counterproductive.
Comment by Brian — July 18, 2008 @ 2:38 pm
Yeah — I think PETA’s an org that vegans are unfortunately associated with in the public imagination.
Comment by Siel — July 19, 2008 @ 1:50 pm
Is there a new wave of sexual censorship arising out of feminism? The fundamentalist religious factions, christian, muslim (burka, female circumcision, arranged “marriages”), and others, uniting with progressive feminism?
It’s kind of frightening. Commercial exploitation of sex is rampant as usual, artistic use can’t really be censored, where does a tabloid media grabbing use of sexual exploitation fall in this spectrum?
I don’t know. Great blog lagirl!
Comment by amazingdrx — July 20, 2008 @ 6:13 am
I’m not sure that censorship is the right word here — I think the issue’s more about rejecting age-old stereotyping and sexual exploitation of women. But to your general point about feminists questioning what seems like women willingly participating in their own objectification: You might find Female Chauvinist Pigs an interesting read :)
Comment by Siel — November 21, 2008 @ 10:35 am
i would totally buy her for $785
Comment by Anonymous — March 3, 2009 @ 2:11 pm
Ha! I hadn’t even noticed the price until you pointed it out –
Comment by Siel — March 3, 2009 @ 4:29 pm
were can i find that? what store? ok walmart dont have it -.-
Comment by Christian — July 7, 2009 @ 12:53 pm
Maybe at the PETA store?
Comment by Siel — July 7, 2009 @ 8:40 pm